Covid-19: Brazil Maintains Low Transmission Rate for Unprecedented Period

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – For the first time since April, Brazil has achieved significnt progress in one of the main Covid-19 control indicators: the country has succeeded in keeping the rate of transmission of the novel coronavirus below 1 for two consecutive weeks, according to data from Imperial College, London.

This week, the rate recorded stands at 0.99, which represents a slight increase compared to 0.95 last week, but still within the deceleration range.

In August, Brazil succeeded for the first time in four months in reducing the transmission rate of the novel coronavirus to a level that is considered pandemic control. Since then, the rate has fluctuated weekly between a little below and a little over 1.

For the epidemic to be considered controlled, the transmission rate must fall below 1. The indicator, also known as Rt, shows to how many people each infected person is transmitting the virus. The rate obtained this week indicates that every 100 infected people transmit the coronavirus to another 99, in a decreasing progression. The data supports the downward trend of Covid-19 curves in Brazil.

The Brazilian rate is lower than countries like Canada (1.77), United Kingdom (1.57), The Netherlands (1.33), Ecuador (1.30), Belgium (1.21), Italy (1.19), Portugal (1.18), Argentina (1.07), Germany (1.05), Japan (1.05), France (1.03) and Colombia (1.00). On the other hand, it is higher than South Africa (0.98), Paraguay (0.97), India (0.96), Austria (0.96), Bolivia (0.95), Mexico (0.95), Spain (0.95), Peru (0.79) and Australia (0.75). The analysis contains data from 72 countries with active coronavirus transmission.

On Tuesday, October 6th, the rolling average of daily notifications of the disease stood at 27,374.1 and that of new deaths at 653.3. The weekly rolling average is computed based on the sum of the number of cases and deaths over the past seven days, divided by seven, the number of days in the period considered – which allows a better evaluation by cancelling out daily fluctuations in the recording and forwarding of data by public health bodies, an issue that occurs mainly on weekends.

Source: Veja